Hi Christian, Christian Perrier wrote:
"The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-neutral constructs in your writing. This is not Political Correctness, this is showing respect to all mankind." And in fact, I'd like to lose "mankind", too, and replace it with "humanity" or "people".Is this because it contains "man" or because this is a better English word for what I would write in French "Humanité", which represents the community of men and women around the world?
It's because it contains "man". In modern English "mankind" is often percieved as having an emphasis on men and a corresponding demphasis on women. It's a little like words such as "chairman" etc, which have also in the past been used to refer to a man or a woman. Using "people" rather than "mankind" avoids the (potential) issue neatly, and still in good English.
I'm sure that someone else can come up with a suitable link to investigate, if you are interested in reading about that stuff. There are several different viewpoints about.
Helen.